


A Needed Distraction

by duskblue



Series: Irondad Bingo 2019 [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, Hurt Peter Parker, Hurt/Comfort, I work in an ER but i'm not medical staff, Irondad, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, irondadbingo, peter is afraid of needles, slight whump, so the descriptions of things are probably mostly right ;), this is mostly fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-07
Updated: 2019-04-07
Packaged: 2020-01-06 07:35:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18383891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/duskblue/pseuds/duskblue
Summary: Peter gets hurt on patrol, and Tony needs to distract him while Bruce sutures up the wound.Written for the irondad bingo on tumblr! (Trope: Hurt/Comfort) Follow along if you want to read the others :)





	A Needed Distraction

“How did this happen?” Tony is standing over Peter in the medbay while Bruce is flushing out the three inch long laceration to his bicep. For once, Peter brought himself to the medbay, but Tony is still a little miffed that he didn’t get a call until Bruce found the kid trying to pack his own wound.

“Ah, I got cut?” Peter says, looking away from Bruce’s handiwork. “I didn’t think the guy would actually, you know, try and stab me. I thought he was just—”

“Playing around?” Tony fills in for him. “Waving knives at you for no reason? Kid, I swear. You’re going to kill me. One day I’m going to have a heart attack because of you.”

“Don’t say that!” Peter says in earnest. “I’m okay, I promise. ‘Tis but a—”

“Flesh wound. I got it. Geez.” Tony puts his hand to his head and closes his eyes, trying to reign in his breathing. If Peter’s arm hadn’t been in the way, that knife might have gotten to his chest, and then Tony really would have been freaking out. But instead, to distract himself, he tries his best to think about fixing the kid’s suit and possibly making it knife proof.

“Um, what is that?” Peter’s panicked voice cuts through Tony’s calculations.

Tony’s eyes fly open to sees Bruce opening a suture kit.

Bruce snaps the lid of the kit closed. “Peter. The laceration is a half inch deep. I’m going to have to sew it up.”

“Oh, no, it’s fine, Dr Banner,” Peter says, shimmying away from him and trying to guard his arm. “I heal really fast. I think it’s already starting to close up. You don’t need to do that. It’s super unnecessary.” 

Bruce looks at Tony, his lips pressed in a line. Clearly he wants Tony to do something, but what is Tony supposed to do if the kid is afraid of needles? So Tony puts his hand on Peter’s uninjured arm and squeezes, giving Bruce a smile. “He does heal pretty quickly.”

“Tony,” Bruce says like he’s more than a little fed up. “The knife cut right into his muscle. Fortunately, it missed any tendons, but if I don’t sew it up, it could heal improperly. It has to be done.”

Tony sighs and looks down at Peter who has moved even closer to him. The kid is looking up at him with those puppy eyes like Tony should be able to save him from this fate worse than death. It just makes what he says next all that much harder. “You heard the doctor, Pete. It has to be done.”

“N-no!” Peter is now scooting towards the head of the bed like either one of them might grab him and hold him down at any moment. “I promise I’ve had cuts worse than this one, and they healed fine. I don’t even have any scars! Mr Stark, please. Can’t we wait till tomorrow and just see what it looks like then?”

“No, Peter,” Bruce says, opening the suture kit back up. “Cuts like this have a window of time that they need to be sutured within. With you, that window is even smaller. We have to do it now. Don’t worry, I have lidocaine right here. You won’t actually feel it.”

Peter’s eyes fall to the metal stand where Bruce has his supplies spread out on a sterile sheet. “What’s that?”

Tony rubs his back, trying to get him to calm down a little. He’s had enough things sewn up that he knows what lidocaine is. “It’ll numb it up,” he answers for Bruce. He doesn’t tell Peter that it involves a needle. “Come on. Sit still here for Bruce. I’ll hold your hand if you want.” He holds out his hand to Peter, but Bruce shakes his head at him slowly.

“Probably not a good idea,” he says. “He’ll crush your hand, and then we’ll have more than one problem. You should just try to distract him. I’m going to have to do this fast. I have a feeling he might metabolize the lidocaine more quickly than a normal person.”

Peter whimpers and looks at Tony with sad eyes. “Please, Mr Stark. This doesn’t have to happen!”

Tony steps closer to the bed and pulls Peter to him, being careful of his injury. “This will be over before you know it,” he says gently when Peter rests his head on his shoulder. He watches while Bruce moves around the bed and sets up shop beside him. 

“Why don’t you keep him there, looking away from the action. I think it’s best if he doesn’t watch.” Bruce holds up the lidocaine syringe and taps it so the air bubbles float to the top. Then he pushes on the plunger a little until a small amount comes out the needle. “This will sting a little, Peter, but then you won’t feel anything. Just stay really still. Tony, can you hold his arm down just in case?”

Peter is so tense in his arms, but Tony manages to get his hand around Peter’s forearm to hold it still. “It’s okay,” he says still rubbing his back with his other hand. 

When Bruce puts the needle in, Peter jumps a little, and Bruce pauses before injecting lidocaine into the area.

“Ow, ow, ow!” Peter says, his other hand clawing at the back of Tony’s shirt. “That burns!”

“Try and relax your arm,” Bruce says and pokes him in another spot. 

“Ow! Dr Banner, I’m serious, that hurts!”

“I’m sorry, Peter. Just a few more, okay?” Bruce glances up at Tony.

Tony just rubs Peter’s back harder.

“Not okay!” Peter whines and lets out what sound suspiciously like a small sob. “Can we take a break?”

“No breaks, bud,” Tony says, scratching his back to try and distract him from the needle. “Bruce said we have to do this quickly. Let’s try thinking about something else.”

“Kind of impossible,” Peter mumbles against his shoulder. “Ow!”

Tony doesn’t give up. “Why don’t you tell me something you learned in Spanish recently. Like some vocab or something.”

“Why does that even matter?” Peter asks.

Tony looks down at where Bruce is working and sees that he’s reaching the end of the laceration with the lidocaine. “Humor me,” he says.

“Um, okay, I guess. Ow, that one burned a lot. I know how to say my arm hurts in Spanish. _Me duele el brazo_.”

“ _Brazo_ , huh?” Tony says, letting out his breath when Bruce puts down the syringe. “That means arm?”

Peter sniffs. “Yeah. Is he finally done?”

“Should be numb,” Bruce answers for Tony. “Now we’ll just stitch it up. Then we’re done.”

“Okay,” Peter mumbles in resignation, gripping Tony’s shirt.

Tony pats his back. “Worst part’s over. This will be a sinch now.”

Bruce glares up at him. He looks like he wants to argue, but isn’t going to say anything in front of Peter, so he bites his tongue and gets back to work. “Tell me if you feel anything, Peter,” he says before putting in the first stitch.

“I feel pressure!” Peter says. “Am I supposed to feel pressure?”

“Yes,” Bruce puts in a second stitch. “Tell me if you feel any pain.”

“Okay,” Peter sniffs, laying his head back down on Tony’s shoulder.

Tony rests his head against Peter’s curly one. He’s thinking about how the kid wasn’t afraid of a knife, but now he’s freaking out over some tiny needles. What a weird kid. “Tomorrow I’m going to work on making your suit knife proof. And bullet proof while we’re at it. I have some new material I want to work with. Should work pretty well. You wanna help me with it?”

“You don’t have to, Mr Stark,” Peter says, now fairly relaxed in his arms. It’s probably his adrenaline wearing off. After this, he’s going to be asleep in no time. “I kind of like the suit I have now, and I don’t want you to waste your time on anything.”

“That’s great and everything,” Tony says, rubbing his back again. “But your suit kind of has a giant hole in it now. Not exactly safe or effective.”

“Can’t we repair that?” Peter says sleepily.

“Yeah, but maybe it would be best if you had something better. I’m old, kid. It’ll help me to know you’re safe. It wouldn’t be wasting anyone’s time, and then maybe I can sleep at night knowing you’re not getting sliced and diced. What do you say?”

“Pfft. You don’t sleep,” Peter says in a groggy voice. 

“Have you ever wondered why?” Tony counters. 

Peter ignores him. “Is Dr Banner almost done?”

Bruce has finished the first layer during their conversation and is now halfway through suturing up the skin. This looks much simpler, and he’s hurrying to finish before the lidocaine wears off. Based on how Peter is half asleep in Tony’s arms, it appears to be a win.

“Almost done, Pete,” Tony says. “You’re doing great.”

After a few more minutes, Bruce sits up straight and takes in a breath. “Done. Geez, it’s been a while since I’ve sewn up such a complicated laceration. At least it was a clean cut. Let’s get a bandage on it. We can take it off tomorrow to see how it’s healing. Until then, keep it dry. Okay, Peter?”

“Mmph,” Peter says, not moving from his spot against Tony’s shoulder.

“I think he’s done, too,” Tony says. 

Bruce applies a thin layer of bacitracin and then tapes down the bandage with some medical tape before pulling Peter’s t-shirt sleeve down over it. “You want me to get some blankets? I’m not sure he’s moving too far from here tonight.”

“Nah, it’s okay. I’m going to try to get him to get into his own bed. He hates waking up in the medbay.”

Bruce smiles a tired smile at him before taking off his gloves and cleaning up his supplies. “Good luck,” he says after he’s washed his hands at the sink, and Tony still hasn’t moved.

“Thanks, I’ll need it. And thanks for fixing him up and being patient with him. Kid hates needles.”

Bruce chuckles. “Apparently. But hey, no problem. Goodnight, Tony.”

“Night, Bruce.” Tony watches him leave the room and listens to his footsteps fade out down the hallway. Then he turns to his problem at hand.

“Spider-kid,” he says in a sing-song voice. “Time to unstick yourself, buddy.”

**Author's Note:**

> Come bother me on tumblr! duskblue-art !!!


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